Print this page
Click to view page image in pdf format.
7th Middle East Geosciences Conference and Exhibition
Manama, Bahrain
March 27-29, 2006
1 Spectraseis Technologie AG, Giessereistrasse 5,
CH-8005 Zurich, Switzerland, phone: +41-433213840, fax: +41-433213841, [email protected]
2 Physics Department, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Hydrocarbon Microtremor Analysis (HyMAS) is an innovative passive technology identifying the hydrocarbon content of
geological structures by analyzing low frequency seismic signals. Hydrocarbon indicating information is extracted from
spectral modifications of naturally occurring seismic background noise 
waves
in the 0.01 – 10 Hz range passing through
hydrocarbon bearing porous structures.
In this paper, a simple description of this reproducibly observable phenomenon in terms of a one -dimensional
linear model
of an oscillating liquid filled porous medium is presented and its relevance for an explanation of the underlying basic HyMAS
signal creating mechanisms and related parameters are discussed. Observed values of about 3 Hz for the oscillation and
2·10-6 m/s for the amplitude of the vertical surface movement velocity could be reproduced by introducing realistic
parameter values for the geophysical properties in the model.